Sealing mechanism for wrapping machines



Feb. 6,]1940.

T. JENSEN SEALING MECHANISM FOR WRAPPING MACHINES Filed Aug. 28, 1957' INVENTOR 0d Jensen.

BYWQ-W ATTORN EY Patented Feb. 6, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SEALING MECHANISM FOR WRAPPING MACHINES poration of New Jersey Application August 28, 1937, Serial No. 161,404

2 Claims.

This invention relates to an improvement in sealing mechanism for wrapping machines.

It is especially applicable for wrapping articles of irregular contour, such as loaves of bread, with 6 waxed paper, or with wrapping paper provided with seams sealed with a heat-responsive adhesive medium of any suitable character.

The invention relates more particularly to a mechanism for chilling a heat-sealed seam 10 formed in the overlapping edges of a wrapper extending lengthwise of a loaf of bread which has a hollow bottom. such seams being often sealed insecurely by conventional chilling mechanism.

Under such conditions, an object of the invention is to provide for sealing effectively a seam of the above character in a wrapper folded about an article of irregular contour, such as a loaf of bread having a hollow" bottom, by applying thereto a form fitting chill movable into contact successively with each of a series of such articles fed seriatim past the sealing station in a wrapping machine.

A cognate object of the invention is to provide,

26 in combination with such a chiIL'means to refrigerate the chill, such means preferably taking the form of a system of flexible ducts connecting the chill with a source of fluid refrigerant; which may desirably be a liquid, such as brine, the ducts 80 being adapted to intercirculate the brine between saidsource and channels formed in the. cold iron or receptacle by which the chill may be constituted. Other means for refrigerating the chill may, however, be utilized.

to A'cognate object of the invention is to provide means by which the chill will be supported pivotally in position to swing toward the path of the .articles to be treated, and away therefrom; also means, of an adjustable character, to bias the 40 chill toward its operative position.

Other and ancillary features and objects of the invention will appear as the description of the physical embodiment selected for illustration and description of the invention progresses.

5 In the accompanying drawing, like characters of reference have been applied to corresponding parts throughout the several views which make up the invention, in which;

Fig. 1 is a view in plan of mechanism in the 5 construction of which the present device has been embodied;

Fig. 2 is a view in vertical section, taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary detail view in side elevation of part of a bread wrapping machine to which the mechanism of Figs. 1 and 2 has been applied.

The specific sealing means selected to illustrate the invention is but one of numerous possible physical embodiments of the invention. 6 The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted to the precise details of the structure shown and described.

This particular physical embodiment herein iilustrated was designed for use on a bread Wrap- 19 ping machine which handles loaves of bread of more or less irregular contour, particularly at the bottom of the loaf where lies the overlapping seam of the wrapper, usually of waxed paper, in which the loaf is enclosed. m

In such a machine as that shown a wrapped loaf P is moved, as one of a series of such loaves being advanced past the sealing station, which is identified -by the diagrammatic representation of the end of a loaf, shown in dash-dot lines in 20 Fig. 2.. Several such wrapped loaves are illustrated in Fig. 3, as part of the series undergoing the sealing operation, which includes the step of heat-sealing and this may desirably be performed at a heat-sealing station, as at H. The sealing 2t operation includes also the step of cooling, which is performed at the region of the group of loaves designated generally P in Fig. 3; and more particularly at'the point CS, as shown in Fig. 2.

Referring first to Fig. 3, a portion of a wrapping machine is illustrated therein and designated generally by the reference character M, only so much being shown in Fig. 3 as is necessary or desirable to make clear the structure of the chilling mechanism in its combinative relation with the heat-sealing mechanism H and the parts associated therewith.

In pursuance of the invention, a table l0 receives the wrapped loaves P in succession as the; are advanced from the heat-sealing station H. w The table II) has an orifice I 0a (see Fig. 2), the position of which defines the locus of the chilling station, as this region will be hereinafter designated, for the sake of brevity, and from this station the loaves P are delivered onto a table T. M

The step of cooling the hot seal along the bottom of the wrapped loaf P which is usually transverseiy hollow along substantially its entire length, as indicated at CS in Fig. 2, is accomplished by a chill, cold iron" or like refrigerated 80 member II which preferably is constituted by a hollow metal tank, mounted as at I6, between the ends of a pair of arms which are pivotally supported, as on a shaft l4 fitted in eye-plates l5 beneath the table l0.

lid)

The tank H is swingable toward and away from the path of the wrapped loaves, and is biased toward said path by the action of a weight W suspended from the extensions l3 of the pivoted arms, this weight being adjustable, by use of conventional weight components, to vary the pressure exerted upwardly by the arched surface of the chill against the wrapper surface 29 at the region of the seam beneath the hollow bottom of the loaf.

Insulation, such as cork, may be provided at the bottom of the chill, as indicated by the reference character C, the lead line from which runs to a layer of such insulation, shown in dashdot lines in Fig. 2.

This figure shows also flexible ducts it and id, of which the former serve to introduce to a suitable chamber Ila: in the tank ll, brine from a refrigerated source thereof (not shown), the top of which chamber is closely adjacent to the wrapper, as at I). while the duct l8 runs back to the source and completes the system of ducts for intercircuiation of the liquid or fluid refrigerant, as the case may be, in known or suitable fashion.

It is not necessary to describe in detail the wrapping operation, nor the step of heat-sealing the overlapped seam components at p, as such operations are well known by those skilled in the art.

The arched upper surface of the chill affords also a very eflicient form of iron for chilling the hot seams of those loaves which have been formed with flat bottoms or only slightly arcuate bottoms, so that my improved chill is of universal utility and does not require special setting for its intended use, nor special attention in operation.

What is claimed is:

1. Sealing mechanism for a wrapping machine comprising mechanism adapted to wrap and hotseal at a sealing station, and to advance past a chilling station, in a. path. traversing both of said stations, a series of loaves, some of which may have relatively fiat bottoms, while other loaves of said series have hollow bottoms, said wrappers having margins overlapped on said hollow bottoms, and having a component responsive to thermal changes; cold sealing mechanism at said chilling station comprising a tank having an arched top and formed with a chamber for the circulation of a liquid refrigerant such as brine into said arched top in liquid contact with the wall element engaging the leaf, said tank top being adapted to cold-iron said bottom seams on said loaves, whether said bottoms are hollow or flat; means to support said tank movably at said chilling station, including a pivoted arm on which said tank is mounted non-rotatively in position to swing bodily toward and away from said path, said arm having means to produce pressure of said tank against the wrapper seams; and flexible ducts adapted to connect said tank with a source of liquid refrigerant such as brine, for circulation through said chamber exerting a chilling effect closely adjacent to the portion of the wrapper entering said hollow portion of the loaf, said tank swinging into frictionally efiective cold-ironing contact with said wrapper seam regardless of the curvature of the mutually contiguous portions of the loa! and wrapper.

2. Sealing mechanism for a wrapping machine comprising mechanism adapted to wrap and hot-seal at a sealing station, and to advance past a chilling station, in a path traversing both of said stations, a series of loaves, some of which may have relatively flat bottoms, while other loaves of said series have hollow bottoms, said wrappers having margins overlapped on said hollow bottoms, and having a component responsive to thermal changes; cold sealing mechanism at said chilling station comprising a tank having an arched top and formed with a chamber for the circulation of a liquid refrigerant such as brine into said arched top, said tank top being adapted to cold-iron said bottom seams on said loaves, whether said bottoms are hollow or flat; means to support said tank movably at said chilling station, including a pivoted arm on which said tank is mounted non-rotatively in position to swing bodily toward and away from said path, said arm having means to produce pressure of said tank against the wrapper seams; and flexible ducts adapted to connect said tank with a source of liquid refrigerant such as brine, for circulation through said chamber from each end toward the center thereof, and out of the tank through a vent heading from said central portion, exerting a chilling eifect closely adjacent to the portion of the wrapper entering said hollow portion of the loaf, said tank swinging into irictionally effective cold-ironing contact with said wrapper seam regardless of thecurvature of the mutually contiguous portions of the loaf and wrapper.

THORMGD JEN SEN. 

